The present invention relates to devices for conveying work pieces, such as fasteners, and more particularly to a magnetic dial assembly that can be used in preparation and finishing processes, to increase the linear travel distance of work pieces while being processed.
There are a variety of devices that process work pieces. Certain conventional devices apply materials to the work pieces. As an example, some devices apply thread locking material to the threads of fasteners. Such devices can include a horizontally oriented dial. A motor rotates the dial. The dial also includes an outer perimeter extending around it, where fasteners are temporarily held in a single row for application of the threadlock material.
To temporarily hold the fasteners against the outer perimeter, the outer perimeter includes magnets. The magnets are oriented relative to the dial so that the north and south poles of the magnets are aligned in a consistent north-south relationship. Specifically, where multiple bar magnets are used, the bar magnets are oriented so that all north poles of all the magnets are oriented toward an upper face of the dial, and all south poles of all the magnets are oriented toward the lower face of the dial.
In these conventional dial devices, the magnets are disposed within a single housing having two opposing covers constructed from a magnetic material that permits passage of the magnetic fields therethrough. An area of magnetic concentration is centralized over the insulating member, and this is where fasteners align in a single row about the outer perimeter.
As a result of the magnets being disposed only in a single plane, conventional dials convey only a single row of fasteners. Thus, as the dial rotates, there is only one level or row of fasteners being conveyed around it. In turn, where the fasteners are processed on the dial at a station, they typically only achieve a single pass by the station. As an example, where a thread locking agent is applied to threads of fasteners in a single row on the dial, the fasteners with applied thread locking agent pass a heating station. However, the fastener only passes the heating station a single time when the dial only rotates one time. If additional drying is required, the dial can no longer be loaded with additional fasteners, and the single row of fasteners about the outer perimeter of the dial must be rotated multiple times about the axis to further heat and cure the thread locking agent at the heating station. As a result, the linear processing length achieved by these conventional dial type conveyance devices is usually limited to the outer circumference of the dial.
Conventional conveyance devices, such as dials, can have other issues. As an example, when the workpieces, such as fasteners, are removed from the single row on the outer perimeter of the dial, the removed fasteners can daisy chain to one another due to the magnetic field being conveyed there through. This leads to disorderly takeoff of the fasteners. Further, in some cases, the fasteners reattach to the dial on its lower surface after being taken off due to the magnetic pull of the dial. The above disorderly takeoffs and other workpiece misalignments can result in damage to portions of the processed fasteners and/or improper takeoff and transfer to subsequent work stations.
There remains room for improvement with regard to conveyance devices for machines that process workpieces, such as fasteners, particularly with regard to dials included in such machines.